Reliance Jio once again trumped the incumbent operators by a very large margin. According to official TRAI data, Jio added a whopping 16.26 million new connections in November 2016, taking their tally to over 51.8 million connections in less than 3 months of launch. The TRAI figures confirm the announcement made by Jio last year […]

Reliance Jio once again trumped the incumbent operators by a very large margin. According to official TRAI data, Jio added a whopping 16.26 million new connections in November 2016, taking their tally to over 51.8 million connections in less than 3 months of launch. The TRAI figures confirm the announcement made by Jio last year that they added 50 million subscribers in 83 days, which incidentally is a world record!

The hectic pace of of new connections by Jio ensured that Indian mobile subscriber base reached 1099.51 million. However, TRAI stats also point to the fact that, majority of Jio connections were taken by existing subscribers only as total active subscriber base actually shrunk by 2 million than previous month.

Here is a graph that should new mobile connection additions over last 2 years.

Active Mobile Subscriber Base

The active mobile subscriber base in November 2016 stood at 968.83 million, as compared to 970.47 million in October 2016. This clearly points to the fact that people who picked up Jio Sims already had connections from other operators. It might also point to the fact that many subscribers could have taken MNP route to move to Jio services.

The active subscriber vs total subscriber percentage fell sharply to 88.11, lowest in last 2 years.

Here is a graph that depicts active subscriber base growth over last 2 years.

Mobile Subscriber Growth Highlights [November 2016]

– With an increase of 21.09 mln connections in Nov 2016, total mobile connections reached 1099.51 million. India had 1078.42 million connections by end of October 2016.

– 4.76 million new Mobile portability requests were made in the month of Nov 2016, taking the total tally of MNP requests since launch to 244.39 mln.

– Active Mobile connections decreased from 970.47 million in Oct 2016 to 968.83 million in Nov 2016, taking the active percentage to 88.11 percent.

– Delhi remained the circle with the highest teledensity of 236.38, while Bihar has the lowest at 56.91. The all-India teledensity currently stands at 86.25.

– Total broadband (> 512 Kbps) subscribers slightly declined from 218.42 Million at the end of Oct-16 to 218.26 million at the end of Nov-16 with a monthly growth rate of -0.07%.

– Out of 218.26 million broadband users in India, 199.61 million access internet through mobile devices or dongles.

Operator Wise Subscriber Additions [Nov 2016]

With Jio setting records for new mobile connections, it was lackluster for most operators, except Idea who managed to add 2.5 million new connections. Market leader Airtel added shade above 1 mln followed by Vodafone (890k) and BSNL (831k). Biggest loser for November 2016 was Tata who lost over 1 million subscribers followed by Sistema (-289k)

Operator-wise Subscriber Additions in 2016

Within 3 months Jio added more connections than all other operators combined added since Jan 2016. Bharti Airtel added 20 mln followed by Idea (15.7 mln) and BSNL (13.2 Mln)

Here is a graph that depicts operator wise subscriber additions since Jan 2016

It would not be too wrong to say that Reliance Jio has completely ruled the new subscriber additions since the time it launched – and numbers prove it. Reliance Jio launched their services in September, and in first 3 weeks of the launch they notched up close to 16 million subscribers. In the month of […]

It would not be too wrong to say that Reliance Jio has completely ruled the new subscriber additions since the time it launched – and numbers prove it. Reliance Jio launched their services in September, and in first 3 weeks of the launch they notched up close to 16 million subscribers. In the month of October, they have added even more bettering their own record at 19.6 million.

According to the TRAI’s October report, a total of 28.68 new mobile connections were taken, taking the total number to 1078.42 million.

Jio, within first 53 days of launch notched up a total of 35.61 million subscribers. To put this number in perspective, all telecom operators put together added 24.84 million subscribers since Jan 2016.

Interestingly, Idea Cellular also registered some stellar numbers, probably their best monthly additions ever – They added 6.337 million new connections in the month of October 2016.

You can clearly see how new mobile connections have shot up in September and October.

Active Mobile Subscriber Base

Interestingly, active subscriber base grew relatively moderately at 21.3 million, which also shows that many Jio subscribers did not use their numbers, even after they had unlimited calling and free data offering. This does not look like a good sign for Jio.

In October, a total of 970.47 mln connections were active as compared to 949.17 million in the previous month.

Here is a chart comparing Active Vs Total Subscriber base growth

Mobile Subscriber Growth Highlights [October 2016]

– With an increase of 28.68 mln in Oct 2016, total mobile connections reached 1078.42 million. India had 1028.88 million connections by end of September 2016.

– 4.93 million new Mobile portability requests were made in the month of Oct 2016, taking the total tally of MNP requests since launch to 239.46 mln.

– Active Mobile connections increased from 949.17 million in Sept 2016 to 970.47 million in Oct 2016, taking the active percentage to 89.99 percent.

– Delhi remained the circle with the highest teledensity of 236.38, while Bihar has the lowest at 56.91. The all-India teledensity currently stands at 86.25.

– Total broadband (> 512 Kbps) subscribers increased from 192.30 Million at the end of Sep- 16 to 218.42 million at the end of Oct-16 with a monthly growth rate of 13.59%.

– Out of 218.42 million broadband users in India, 199.90 million access internet through mobile devices or dongles.

Operator Wise Subscriber Additions [Oct 2016]

When it came to new additions, Jio bettered their own record from the previous month. Idea Cellular also had probably their best ever month adding over 6.3 million new connections. Bharti Airtel added 2.3 mln new connections followed by BSNL (1.19 Mln) and BSNL (1.18 Mln).

The operator that fared worst was Tata, who lost over 1.3 million connections followed by Reliance who lost close to 1 million subscribers.

The growth of Indian mobile subscribers seems to be back on track. For the first time in nearly 2 years, monthly mobile subscriber addition numbers have crossed 10 million in one month. This is also the 5th consecutive month when the numbers have seen a positive growth. According to monthly TRAI telecom subscription report, India […]

The growth of Indian mobile subscribers seems to be back on track. For the first time in nearly 2 years, monthly mobile subscriber addition numbers have crossed 10 million in one month. This is also the 5th consecutive month when the numbers have seen a positive growth.

According to monthly TRAI telecom subscription report, India added 10.03 million subscribers in month of February, taking the total tally of subscribers to 903.36 million.

Idea Cellular was the front runner with 3.33 million new subscriber added in their kitty.

Here is the graph showing subscriber additions over last 18 months.

Active subscriber base also saw significant increase in month of February. It jumped to 780.27 million from 772.65 mln in January 20134. Active subscribers now represent 86.37% of the total subscribers.

Here is a graph showing Total vs active subscriber percentage

Mobile Subscription Highlights [February 2014]

– With an increase of 10.03 million in Feb 2014, total mobile subscriber base has reached to 903.36 million. India had 893.31 million subscribers by end of January 2014.

– Total Broadband (> 512 Kbps) subscription reached 58.00 million at the end of Feb 2014. Out of which, wired broadband subscription is 14.80 million and wireless broadband subscription is 43.20 million.

Operator Wise Market Share [Feb 2014]

In Feb 14, Idea did exceedingly well adding nearly 3.332 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel added 2.656 million followed by Vodafone who added 2.155 million. Interestingly the top 3 operators themselves added over 80 percent of all new subscribers.

Sistema (-653k), Tata (-47k) and Loop (-10k) were the 3 operators who lost their subscribers in month of February 2014.

It’s been over a year since the news has been making round that Aadhar Identification will be a valid proof. Even currently most telecom operators accept Aadhaar card as a valid ID proof. But, using Aadhaar card as a ID proof does not skip the lengthy verification process. It acts merely as a replacement of […]

It’s been over a year since the news has been making round that Aadhar Identification will be a valid proof. Even currently most telecom operators accept Aadhaar card as a valid ID proof. But, using Aadhaar card as a ID proof does not skip the lengthy verification process. It acts merely as a replacement of other ID proofs like driving license, PAN card, ration card etc.

This is because the verification process if not linked to Aadhaar cards. But that may soon change. According to Hindu article, Govt is in the process of finalizing norms that will enable instant identity verification using Aadhaar card biometrics data.

How Instant Verification Works

Retailers will take finger impressions of customer who is interested in new mobile connection. This will then be matched to the Aadhaar card data at the point of sale. The verification will happen online securely on Aadhaar servers. Once successful, customer can immediately get a new mobile connection.

A pilot project was successfully conducted in Andhra Pradesh in this regards, the state which has over 56 million people enrolled for Aadhaar card .

The advantages of carrying out Aadhaar based verification are obvious. From telecom operator’s perspective, the effort required to do the current lengthy manual verification process comes down to nearly zero. Not only are cost savings huge, the operator does not have to worry about maintaining tons of paper work as well.

Last year, TRAI had enforced strict norms on operators to ensure that customers do not submit wrong or inaccurate identity information in the interest of national security as rogue elements of society routinely took advantage of it. With Aadhaar linked verification, it will be nearly impossible to obtain a new connection.

Department of Telecommunication is planning issue new guidelines in this regards by the end of the year. Once the guidelines are in place, customers will not need anything else other than Aadhaar Card to get a new mobile phone connection.

India’s largest cellular service provider Airtel has decided to introduce the use of Aadhaar in its services in Delhi. They are following suit after Vodafone started including the use of India’s ambitious unique identification system in their services. Airtel’s move is an added achievement for the body implementing India’s equivalent of the US social security […]

India’s largest cellular service provider Airtel has decided to introduce the use of Aadhaar in its services in Delhi.

They are following suit after Vodafone started including the use of India’s ambitious unique identification system in their services.

Airtel’s move is an added achievement for the body implementing India’s equivalent of the US social security number, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Their scheme is primarily aimed at helping the poor obtain access to key services to support themselves.

Foolproof Identification

Telecom players using the Aadhaar system will need to scan fingerprints of Aadhaar number holders and arrange to get them tallied with those stored in the national database controlled by UIDAI. Only if the authentication is successful, SIM cards will be provided.

I’ve heard stories of impersonators obtaining SIM cards after stealing vital documents like electricity bills – the Aadhaar system, with both photographs and fingerprints recorded centrally, promises to make this a thing of the past if implemented at a sufficiently large scale.

This will be a boon for people who are unable to obtain passports, PAN cards, ration cards or election cards, but still need a means for identification for mobile phone services.

So far, about 21 crore (210 million) people have been issued Aadhaar cards. Majority of Indian residents are expected to possess their own Aadhaar numbers in the coming decade.

Aadhaar Numbers and Telecom Subscribers: The Hurdles

The main problem will be manifest in the millions of people who manage to sneak into India from remote jungles and rivers along the borders, and begin to call the country their own.

There is also a problem of incomplete or changing addresses, which can result in frustration among authorities trying to make life easy for citizens.

While the UIDAI is carrying out an unprecedented job in indexing the country’s citizens, there are key questions that remain. Is the technology being used free from glitches, and immune from intervention by corrupt human operators?

Are the laws adequate enough to deal with wrongdoers among the operators tasked with handling subscribers’ data?

Although, the growth in mobile subscriber base has slowed down considerably over past few months, May 2012 saw a healthy growth after dismal April figures. According to the TRAI report for May 2012, India added 8.35 million new subscribers taking the overall mobile subscriber base in India to 929.37 million. Here is a look at […]

Although, the growth in mobile subscriber base has slowed down considerably over past few months, May 2012 saw a healthy growth after dismal April figures. According to the TRAI report for May 2012, India added 8.35 million new subscribers taking the overall mobile subscriber base in India to 929.37 million. Here is a look at monthly subscriber additions since March 2011.

– Urban Teledensity stands at 162.57 as compared to rural density of 39.35

– Rural mobile subscriber share was 64.24%

– 4.27 million new Mobile portability requests were made in month of May taking the total tally of MNP requests since launch to 50.16 mln

– Out of total 929.37 million, 68.33 mln were active mobile subscribers in month of May.

– 3.6 lakh new Broadband subscribers were added in month of May taking total tally to 1.43 crore.

– Delhi (239.91) has 4 times the teledensity as compared to the National average (79.28). Lowest teledensity was registered in Assam (47.7)

– India has a total telecom subscriber base (wireless+wireline) of 960.90 mln.

Operator wise Mobile Subscriber additions [May 12]

Bharti Airtel added 2 million new subscribers to its kitty accounting for 24% of all the new additions in May. Their total base now stands at 185 million. Idea added 17.6 million taking their tally to 116 million by end of May. After dismal last few months, where Tata was continuously loosing subscribers, they managed to add 307k subscriber. Tata’s total subscriber base now stands at 81.5 million. The 2 PSU operators BSNL and MTNL were the only operators who witnessed a negative growth in May 2012.

Telecom Operator wise Market Share [May 2012]

While Bharti is way ahead with close 20% market share in India, Reliance (16.58%) and Vodafone (16.41) are having a close battle. Reliance currently has 154 million subscribers as compared to 152.5 million of Vodafone. Uninor, who is one of the late entrants in Indian Telecom market now has over 45 million subscribers and accounts for close to 5 percent of Indian mobile market share.

The growth of mobile subscribers in India remains steady in last few months – According to the report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India saw addition of 8 million new mobile subscribers in March 2012 taking the total tally of mobile subscribers in India to 919.17 million. The total telecom subscriber base […]

The growth of mobile subscribers in India remains steady in last few months – According to the report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India saw addition of 8 million new mobile subscribers in March 2012 taking the total tally of mobile subscribers in India to 919.17 million. The total telecom subscriber base including landline subscribers currently stands at 951.34 million users.

Here is a look at monthly mobile subscriber additions over last 12 months:

Highlights of Telecom Subscriber Addition [March 2012]

India currently has 596 million Urban compared to 323 million rural mobile subscribers

Rural subscriber base grew by close to 2% and now accounts for 35.2% of all mobile subscribers.

Urban Teledensity stands at 163% while rural is at 38%.

In March 2012, 47.6 lakh Indian subscribers made Mobile Number Portability requests taking the total tally to 3.7 crore who have now opted for MNP.

Out of all mobile subscribers, 683 million were active in March 2012. So, 74.3% of mobile subscribers used mobile services atleast once.

Operator Wise Mobile Subscriber Additions [March 2012]

Bharti came back on top after lackluster showing in past few months – It added 2.5 millions subscribers [or 31.26%] in March. Idea continued its impressive showing by adding 2 million new subscribers to its kitty in March 2012. Although, there are licensing issues Uninor is facing, it hasn’t stopped their impressive showing. In last 3-4 month they are consistently on top. Uninor is still tariff card and bagging customers in bucket loads.

One the other hand, Tata’s poor showing continues and they lost 1.4 lakh subscribers. However, if you compare it to last month, this month is much better. I ‘d expect them to increase the tally from next month onwards.

Operator Wise Market Share [March 2012]

With 181 million mobile subscribers, Bharti remains on top capturing 19.72% of Indian mobile market share. Reliance (153 mln) and Vodafone (150 mln) are very close to each other with only 3 million subscribers differentiating both of them. Idea’s good showing (113 mln) over last few month have ensured that they are sitting pretty at 4th position with 12.26% market share.

Broadband Subscription Data

Total Broadband subscriber base has increased from 13.54 million at the end of Feb 2012 to 13.79 million at the end of March 2012, there by registering a monthly growth of 1.86%. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 14.80% in last one year (March 2011 to March 2012).

As on 31st March 2012, India has 155 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) providing broadband services in the country. Top three ISPs in terms of market share are: BSNL, Bharti Airtel and MTNL.

One of the better things about taking a new mobile connection in India (apart from cheap tariffs) is relative the ease with which you can get started. Just hop on to the nearest shop, ask for a new mobile connection (now-a-days every 2nd shop sells sim cards), just sign the form, handover the photo-copy of […]

One of the better things about taking a new mobile connection in India (apart from cheap tariffs) is relative the ease with which you can get started. Just hop on to the nearest shop, ask for a new mobile connection (now-a-days every 2nd shop sells sim cards), just sign the form, handover the photo-copy of your ID / address proof and you are done. You can start making calls in next few hours.

Currently, subscriber verification happens parallely – i.e: The sim card gets activated immediately (in few hours) and the new user verification process happens simultaneously. If any discrepancies are found in the application or in their Identity / Address proof, the new connection gets deactivated. The obvious advantage for consumer is that he does not have to wait for days together before starting to use the new connection

However, things may not be that simple anymore. Indian Security agencies have proposed new guidelines to be followed by Telecom Operators for new customer acquisition. The new guidelines propose that customer verification has to happen fully before the sim card is activated. These were formulated keeping in mind the national security concerns, where anti-social elements may take advantage of this process. If the guidelines get implemented, new connections may take as much as 6-7 days to get activated. Not only that, it will be put tremendous strain on already burdened Telecom Operators.

According to ToI, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India told Supreme court yesterday that these new guidelines need to be simplified without diluting the national security concerns expressed by security agencies. The new guidelines, if implemented as is, are sure to affect the growth of mobile subscribers in India

In my personal opinion, National security is of utmost importance, and that for sure cannot be compromised even if it means more time for activation. Having said that, I am sure there might be a simpler way which can be implemented ensuring that both the objectives are met.

User Verification is a perpetual problem in India, thanks to lack of central unique identification database. Once Aadhaar reaches the critical mass, it has power to simplify every kind of user verification process. Till then Indians will have to follow the tedious processed of verification.